DENVER, Feb. 27 (UPI) -- United Airlines will soon begin training its 9,000 pilots on the use of the advanced Taser gun for cockpit security as it awaits federal approval to place them aboard airliners, a company spokesman said Wednesday.
United purchased 1,300 of the guns from Taser International, of Scottsdale, Ariz., as an additional measure to increase cockpit security, United spokesman Joe Hopkins said. The airline must obtain federal approval to place them on airliners.
"We've done a lot of testing ourselves," Hopkins said. "We think this makes all the sense in the world."
Training will be conducted at United's flight-training center in Denver and other pilot bases around the country. It's expected to begin within the next the next few weeks and be completed by July. United announced earlier it planned to equip its pilots with Taser guns.
An FAA spokesman would not say when that agency might approve the Tasers for cockpit security.
The airlines 21,000 flight attendants will also receive limited exposure to the Taser gun during a new six-hour security course they will take along with pilots. The guns will be installed in the cockpits so flight attendant access will be limited.
There has been some concern among airline and government officials about the impact the Tasers might have on the electronics of an airliner, but tests conducted by United apparently have answered those questions for regulators, The Denver Post reported Wednesday.
During tests aboard a parked Boeing 747, the company fired Taser shots "at all kinds of panels, flight control systems and computer screens" in the cockpit, according to Hank Krakowski, a United captain and vice president of corporate safety and security.
"It didn't even flinch," he told the Post.
United pilots also fired Tasers into the navigational computers of Airbus 320 during a test flight and there was no disruption of the plane's plane's electronics.
United decided to go with "non-lethal" Tasers as a cockpit security weapon rather than firearms because there are fewer consequences, Hopkins said. "The Taser is really focused on disabling somebody for a short period of time," he said.
A Taser is an electronic gun that can fire two sharpened probes up to 21 feet, snagging in clothing or flesh. The probes are connected to the gun with high-voltage wires, which transmit electrical pulses and immobile the attackers, according to Tom Smith, president of Taser International
"We cause all the muscles to contract and release at a pace we set," he said. "As it relates to a combative individual, we literally lock them up."
